There have been a few threads around about getting wacky pricing using the multi-city tool so this is related to that but perhaps not quite the same.
I'm searching for a friend of mine who wants to travel from MEL to LHR in April next year around Easter in J (!). I've managed to find some creative ways of getting there as all the sensible routes have no availability.
What I'm wondering is, are there rules you must stay within to allow Qantas to price your ticket as a single partner award (ie. 139k)? I'm thinking things like backtracking, number of segments etc. I've made sure all the transits are under 24h and have discovered routes like:
MEL - KUL - NRT|HND - LHR
(can be found when just searching for MEL - KUL - LHR as city pairs on Qantas, so no problem with JAL married segments. In fact, it seems partners can only get space on HND - LHR when adding on a tag flight).
MEL - ADL - DOH - KWI - LHR
(I can only see this through AA search tool not Qantas, which refuses to show DOH - KWI - LHR. There seems to be wide open availability however for that route.)
MEL - PVG - LHR
Qantas won't show this as a through route though the availability is plentiful (can even get the BA flight for the second sector on some days as well). Presumably this would be the simplest to book over the phone?
Is it a case of just spending the time working the phones to get some options or are there some ground rules to follow when doing something like this?
I'm searching for a friend of mine who wants to travel from MEL to LHR in April next year around Easter in J (!). I've managed to find some creative ways of getting there as all the sensible routes have no availability.
What I'm wondering is, are there rules you must stay within to allow Qantas to price your ticket as a single partner award (ie. 139k)? I'm thinking things like backtracking, number of segments etc. I've made sure all the transits are under 24h and have discovered routes like:
MEL - KUL - NRT|HND - LHR
(can be found when just searching for MEL - KUL - LHR as city pairs on Qantas, so no problem with JAL married segments. In fact, it seems partners can only get space on HND - LHR when adding on a tag flight).
MEL - ADL - DOH - KWI - LHR
(I can only see this through AA search tool not Qantas, which refuses to show DOH - KWI - LHR. There seems to be wide open availability however for that route.)
MEL - PVG - LHR
Qantas won't show this as a through route though the availability is plentiful (can even get the BA flight for the second sector on some days as well). Presumably this would be the simplest to book over the phone?
Is it a case of just spending the time working the phones to get some options or are there some ground rules to follow when doing something like this?